Hard refractory compositions



United States Pate M HARD REFRACTORY. COMPOSITIONS Edward W.'Goliber, Royal Oak, Mich., assiguor to General Electric Company, a corporation of New York.

No Drawing. Original application January 4, 1955, Se-

rialNo. 479,861. Divided and this application April 17, 1958, SerialNo. 729,061

1 Claim. (Cl. 106 -65) This application is a division of application S. N. 479,861, filed January 4, 1955 Thisinvention relates to hard refractory compositions produced by powder metallurgy from pulverul'ent mixtures of alumina and lower oxides or suboxides of/titanium. Lower oxides or suboxides of :titanium as used herein refers to oxides of titanium containingless oxygen than is present in a normal titanium dioxide andincludes titanium-oxygen solid solutions containing as little as five weight percent oxygen.

The need for materials having high strength and high hardness, as well as general chemical inertness, is ever increasing and of major importance in present industrial applications. Such materials are extremely useful in manufacturing cutting tools, extrusion and drawing dies, critical wear parts, etc.

It is known that the lower oxides or suboxides of titanium, for example, those approximating titanium monoxide in composition, are hard substances. However, these materials by themselves lack strength and are much too brittle for practical use. In my copending application, Serial No. 432,934, filed May 27, 1954, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, I have disclosed that the extreme brittleness and fragility of titanium suboxides alone can be overcome by pressing and sintering pulverulent mixtures of titanium suboxides and chromium, the resulting products being strong, hard and chemically inert.

It now has been found that extremely hard and comparatively strong materials can be obtained by sintering intimate mixtures of pulverulent titanium suboxides and alumina. Not only are these compositions stronger than the titanium suboxides alone, but they also offer advantages over sintered alumina in that they are stronger and can be sintered at somewhat lower temperatures.

The amounts of the components employed in preparing the compositions of the present invention may vary within certain limits. For example, extremely hard and comparatively strong substances may be produced from pul'verulent titanium suboxides and alumina mixed and sintered in proportions such that the final sintered body contains aluminum and titanium in an Al/Ti atomic ratio of between .8 and 20. The oxygen content may also vary and may be present in an amount equivalent to that required for the complete oxidation of aluminum to A1 0 with an additional amount present equivalent to an O/Ti atomic ratio of between .25 and 1.4. More specifically,

tion to materials containing only titanium suboxide and 2,8 73,1 98 Rev ewed. tch- 10;. 1,9159

. 2 alumina phases. The materials of the invention mayconta-in other phases. resulting from the. interaction of these two substances.

By. using thespecified compositional ranges. of the invention, both strength and hardness can be combined in a single material. These, limits are critical since only compositions within these limits display the desired hardness as well as the desired strength. The criticality of these limits is best illustrated by the examples hereinafter found.

In one embodiment of this invention, the pulverulent mixed. oxides used inpreparing, thecompositions. of the present invention may be conveniently prepared by rer acting an intimate mixture. of aluminum and titanium dioxide in the desiredproportions. In order to prepare some, compositions, it may be necessary to admix titanium metal powder or alumina, as the case maybe. These powders may, be mixed and caused to react by heating from. about 1000? C. to about 1400? C. in a hydrogen atmosphere. Thereacted briquettes, being porous, are

readily crushedor milled to a fine, powder. Because the initial metal powders are somewhat oxidized and because some oxidation occurs during processing, a slightly less amount of oxygenis added in the form of oxides than correspondsjto the final oxygen content desired.

An additional amount of alumina may be added to this reacted powderand the .final mixtureintimately mixed byball milling for periodsranging upto several days, pressed, and sintered in a hydrogen atmosphere.

' Inanother embodiment of this invention, the titanium suboxides employed may be prepared from an intimate mixture of titanium metal powder and titanium dioxide mixed in predetermined proportions. The resulting powder is then reacted and crushed as described above. This titanium suboxide is then mixed with alumina and processed as described in the first embodiment.

In order that those skilled in the art may better understand how the present invention may be practiced, the following examples are given by way of illustration and not by way of limitation. All parts and percentages are by weight.

EXAMPLE 1 A mixed oxide deficient in oxygen was prepared by intimately mixing 28.2 parts of aluminum metal powder containing 94.6 percent aluminum, 56.4 parts of titanium dioxide and 75.5 parts of alumina. The mixed powders were pressed into briquettes and the briquettes thereafter reacted in a hydrogen atmosphere at about l350 C. Thereafter the briquettes were crushed to a fine powder. 34 parts of this powder and 51 parts of alumina powder were intimately mixed by milling with acetone in a carbide ball mill for an additional period of 72 hours. The powder was dried, cold pressed at about 20,000 p. s. i., and the compact thereafter sintered on a hydrogen atmosphere at about 1600 C. for approximately 340 minutes.

The resulting product was found to be electrically conductive, extremely hard, having a hardness of about 94 Rockwell A, and strong, having a modulus of rupture strength of about 9Q,000-95,000 p. s. i. Comparison of this composition with those disclosed in my aforementioned copending application S. N. 432,934 show that it is much harder.

The composition of the final sintered product is as follows:

Percent Aluminum 47.1 Titanium 8.2 Oxygen (by difference) about"; 44.7

It is understood that minor amounts of impurities may have been introduced in the starting materials and during processing.

Table I O/Ti Modulus of Atomic Rupture Ratio The eifect of aluminum and titanium contents on the strength of the composition of the invention is shown below in Table II. These compositions contain oxygen equivalent in amount to that required to completely oxidize the aluminum to A1 plus an additional amount equivalent to an O/T i ratio of approximately 1.

Table II Al/Ti Modulus of Atomic Rupture Ratio Example (1.. 3 30, 00045, 000 Example 7.- 1.75 50, 000-70, 000 Example 8.. 4. 7 60, 000-80, 000 Example 1. 80, 000-100, 000 Example 9 16 60, 000-85, 000

The examples described above are limited to compositions prepared from alumina and titanium suboxides. Substantially stronger but somewhat softer materials can be made from chromium, alumina and titanium oxides, as described in my copending parent application S. N. 479,861.

While the processes employed in the foregoing examples may be adopted as general procedure in preparing the compositions of this invention, it is to be understood that variations in processing are within the scope of the invention. For example, sintering temperatures may be varied from about 1450 to 1650 C. and inert atmospheres other than hydrogen may be employed for the sintering. Additionally, the usual procedures and techniques employed in powder metallurgy and ceramics for molding or processing of powders generally are applicable and the compositions may be varied to obtain variations in properties as desired.

The compositions of the present invention have a wide range of utility. Due to their unique properties, they may be used in the fabrication of cutting tools, extrusion and drawing dies, critical furnace parts, critical wear parts,-etc. r

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

A sintered strong and hard composition consisting essentially of a lower oxide of titanium and alumina and in which composition the aluminum titanium atomic ratio is from about .8 to about 20, and the oxygen content is such that the atomic ratio O3 2 Al lies between .25 and 1.4.

No reference cited. 

1. A SINTERED STRONG AND HARD COMPOSITION CONSISTING ESSENTIALLY OF A LOWER OXIDE OF TITANIUM AND ALUMINA AND IN FROM ABOUT 8 TO ABOUT 20, AND THE OXYGEN CONTENT IS SUCH THAT THE ATOMIC RATIO. 